Personal computer systems are well known in the art. They have attained widespread use for providing computer power to many segments of today's modern society. Personal computers (PCs) may be defined as a desktop, floor standing, or portable microcomputer that includes a system unit having a central processing unit (CPU) and associated volatile and non-volatile memory, including random access memory (RAM) and basic input/output-system read only memory (BIOS ROM), a system monitor, a keyboard, one or more flexible diskette drives, a CD-ROM drive, a fixed disk storage drive (also known as a “hard drive”), a pointing device such as a mouse, and an optional network interface adapter. One of the distinguishing characteristics of these systems is the use of a motherboard or system planar to electrically connect these components together. Examples of such personal computer systems are IBM's PC 300 series, Aptiva series, and Intellistation series.
The widespread use of PCs to various segments of society has resulted in a reliance on the PCs for work, e.g., telecommuting, news, stock market information and trading, banking, shopping, shipping, communication in the form of hypertext transfer protocol (http) and email, as well as other services. Many of these functions take advantage of the Internet. With PCs being increasingly connected into networks to allow transfers of data among computers to occur, more operations such as maintenance, updating of applications, workplace collaboration, and data collection are occurring over the network.
While many businesses allow their employees to access the Internet from company computers because of the immense benefits in communication, productivity, knowledge, etc. that may be achieved, such value comes at a cost. Proper functioning of a company's computer system and protection of the company's proprietary information require that a prudent company provide network security to deter hackers, minimize damage from computer viruses, and to keep company information proprietary. Network security typically includes a hardware and/or software firewall to protect the company's computer systems from attackers or other unwanted intruders from the outside. A firewall can also serve to prevent users of the computer system (i.e., employees) from accessing particular websites, from transmitting certain types or sizes of files, etc. Most companies do opt to limit their employees' access to outside networks, such as access to other companies' networks, because of the network security risks, despite the value that the employees could gain from having such access. Most of these companies do, however, allow e-mail to and from outside sources (and through the firewall) as it has great value and the risks associated with it are more easily managed.
The proliferation of PCs and other computer systems in the business world—as well as the advent of networks such as Local Area Networks (LANs) and corporate intranets—has resulted in the creation and utilization of computer software-based tools which facilitate dissemination of information and collaboration between employees. One common use of the computer software-based tools is facilitating business process improvement. These business processes can often be represented as a workflow characterized by a well-defined succession of states. A relational database is often used to represent and store this transactional data in such a system. The current trend in, workflow software centers around a relational database engine with access provided by a web browser-enabled interface on a corporate intranet. Such tools do not presently have the capability for flow and synchronization between discrete corporate organizations, at least partially based on network security concerns.
As companies increasingly enter into joint ventures, subcontractor, joint development, standards setting, or other collaborative arrangements, the need has arisen to facilitate dissemination of information between the employees of different companies, similar to the company-internal dissemination and collaboration that has been occurring for years, such as by the intranet-based relational database engines. Corporate firewalls installed to improve network security, however, prevent easy sharing of computer systems and information when the employees are from multiple companies. This problem is exacerbated with relational databases, since access to a central database by employees of multiple companies is often impossible or undesirable and the organizational benefits of a relational database cannot be achieved, as the relational database is usually located behind one of the corporate firewalls.
There is, therefore, a need for an effective, safe and efficient system to facilitate synchronization of information among the personnel on different computer systems, such as those maintained by individual companies. There is an even greater need for such a system when the different computer systems are protected by firewalls or other network security.